1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a chinrest for a violin or the like, and more specifically to a device and method for creating a customized chinrest molded to conform to the precise idiosyncrasies of a player's chin and jaw, rendering greater comfort, support, range of motion, and control to the player.
2. Prior Art
Violins are supported at three points on the player's body: the collarbone or shoulder, the jaw, and the hand which extends to support violin's neck. The bulk of the instrument's weight is supported upon the shoulder of the player. This point of support is further ensured by the jaw or chin's opposing hold on the top edge of the base of the instrument. A violinist transfers the support responsibility between these three points of contact. In transferring support in this way, each violinist employs her own unique combination of weight shifting, head pivoting, and instrument angling techniques. Each player's approach to her violin hold therefore demands unique and specific needs from the shoulder and jaw supporting points. To engage these body parts, a player drops her head weight into the small area of her jaw which contacts the violin chinrest, and thus presses the instrument into her shoulder. This action frees the fingering hand of much tension and responsibility in terms of support, and should serve to raise the instrument. Ideally, a player hopes to avoid raising their shoulder or clenching their neck muscles to complete the hold. Moreover, it is often necessary for the player to assume this chin or jaw engaged position for long periods of time during both practice and performance, so that optimum fit, comfort, and performance of the chinrest become essential.
Conventional chinrests are not custom contoured to each player's jaw, and therefore are not ideal violin manipulation tools. A conventional chinrest is either formed of wood or plastic, and is designed to fit a standard violin or viola. It is preferably carved or molded into a shape having a concave chin cup 18, FIG. 2, of sufficient size and an indentation general enough to accommodate varying sizes and contours of the chins and jaws of players. For example, some chins are jutting and have sharp lines, while others are rounder. Further, some chins are bonier than others which are covered with more fleshy tissue. Thus, for obvious reasons, the prior art chinrest may be a source of considerable discomfort to the performer. In fact, many beginning violinists do not progress beyond the early stages of violin instruction due to the discomfort suffered in their chins and jaws as a result of ill fitting or otherwise uncomfortable chinrests. Furthermore, the chin is used to control the violin's angle and position. For that reason, a properly shaped chinrest is important in the control of the instrument. Violinists whose chinrests are ill fitting commonly develop cysts at the chinrest abrasion site, or where the jaw contacts the support edge 20, FIG. 2, along with other overuse syndromes cased by the muscle tension created by the conventional chinrest. An ill fitting chinrest can also result in faulty left wrist and finger placement if proper control over the instrument can not be achieved. In addition, the surface of the conventional chinrest is hard and therefore not optimally comfortable against skin and bone. Many players have an allergy to some types of metal used in the clamp 16, FIG. 2 of the conventional chinrest.
One conventional and inexpensive solution to the problem of an uncomfortable and ill-fitting chinrest is to place padded overlays on the chinrest. These padded overlays are the only solution to discomfort associated with an ill fitting chinrest which has exhibited commercial success, because they are affordable, and therefore, easily forgiven if not totally effective. One popular product on the market is called the GelRest (Mill Valley, Calif.). It is a rubber overlay which is cut to fit the circumferential shape of the chinrest cup of most conventional chinrests. A player adheres that overlay to the surface of her conventional chinrest's cup, thus rendering the cup more comfortable to the skin and hard tissue of the jaw. These padded overlays provide limited and minimal improvement of a player's jaw and chin comfort by softening sharp edges which jut into the bone and soft tissue of the player's jaw; however, since the padded overlay can do nothing to change the inherent contours of the traditional chinrest, this method is not a successful solution to the problem of inaccurate fit of jaw contour and range of motion of a player. In addition, if overlays provided enough padding to entirely eliminate or recontour a sharp support edge 18, FIG. 2, in doing so, said overlays would also eliminate the support which that structural curvature is intended to provide, thus rendering the conventional chinrest useless as a support device.
Another solution to both the problem of an ill fitting, inflexible chin cup curvature and also the problem of accommodating a player's range of changing head rotation while playing is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,259. In this patent, a chinrest design was disclosed having support brackets which allow the chinrest to pivot to a most comfortable position in accordance with the movements of the head of the performer. This chinrest also allows for some flexibility in the chinrest cup, in that the cup is constructed of a material with give or an elastically deformable cushion which covers an open centered circumference of a harder supporting material. Since this circumferential material is not contoured to fit the jaw of each player, some players find it uncomfortable, or even painful.
A further problem with U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,259 is the swiveling action, designed to accommodate a range of head motion. Such swiveling action, however, creates instability and a resulting lack of control over the instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,835 describes an insert for a conventional chinrest for a violin or viola with a contoured shape which is molded to the shape of each performer's chin and jaw. Although there is no record of this invention's production or commercial sale; to date, this invention provides the best possible fit between a conventional chinrest and a player's chin and jaw. A possible reason for this invention's lack of commercial success was its ultimate inability to accurately fit the player's jaw and chin. Although this invention requires that the player use the flattest chinrest available as the base, there are no flat chinrests in manufacture. All conventional chinrests are concave. If the volume of thermoplastic was great enough to eliminate all curvature of the impression tray the player would end up making a chinrest that would be too high. Flat surfaced violin chinrests would offer no support or grab to the hold of a player. As a result of this, U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,835 only provides a partial solution to the problem of fit, support and comfort of the player. Although this invention improved the fit between the player's chin and jaw and chinrest, the insert failed to partner adequately with the conventional chinrest base. As a result, it was unable to take an accurate impression of the chin and jaw of a player while playing. In addition, this invention and method instructed the player to take one impression of her jaw in playing position. Since a player exhibits a range of jaw pivot while playing, the impression taking method of U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,835 was not sufficient to allow for the range of motion of a player's chin and jaw while playing, and created a restrictive, and therefore uncomfortable final product. Another problem remains unsolved by this invention: hard surfaces with curvatures are not the preferred interface to hard bone beneath human skin. When the chin and jaw of a player is shifting weight and position frequently, the plastic or hard surface offers no cushion to comfort the hardness of jaw and chin. A lack of flexibility in the chinrest creates discomfort of the chin and jaw. This discomfort inhibits precision and endurance both of which are essential to violin playing.
France Pat. No. FR2635218 (A1) describes a device and method of production of a violin chinrest contoured to the chin and jaw of an individual player, which also uses thermoplastic as its impression taking material. Along with the aforementioned lack of comfort provided by the resulting hard surfaced chinrest, this invention involves several steps in its production, and requires expertise in the art of mold making on the part of the manufacturer. As a result, this device and method especially relating to the creating of its base, is time consuming, and too involved for regular fabrication by the average violin player. Furthermore, aligning the constituent parts of this invention requires skill, adequate tools, and time, in order to produce an accurate final chinrest product. Laminating these three parts together will create a finished chinrest that in that state will have to be refined in some way to meet the standards of comfort, elegance and beauty within the art of violin playing. A technician would either have to sand off all edges to make them appear flush and smooth and then polish the finished chinrest, or either follow the suggestion of France Pat. No. FR2635218 (A1) and cover them with leather to create a more comfortable and polished looking final chinrest product.
Also, a player must fully assemble, glue and finish this chinrest before it can be tried in practice or performance. If the final chinrest is found to be slightly off, a technician must redo the entire process from the beginning, which would involve a total of five steps, and within those five steps there is a higher likelihood that one or more of them will be performed slightly off, resulting once again in an ill-fitting rest that will have to be reconstructed from the beginning.